Do you have a shoe pair from Adidas? OR if you don’t have shoes at least you have a tea shirt from this brand. World’s second largest footwear brand is Adidas. The central headquarters of Adidas is in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The brand was founded by Adolf Dassler and his brother Rudolf Dassler in 1924. Ok, that’s enough introduction. Let’s dig into the world of interesting facts about Adidas.

Read On To Learn Adidas Facts and History

The Company Name

The name Adidas was given to the company after the name of Adolf Dassler. Although the name could be given on the name of Rudolf Dassler. But the reason was Adolf was youngest brother.

Why Did Dassler Brothers Split

Although the exact reason behind the rivalry is not known. But according to some explanations they both separated due to some family issue in 1947. Sadly, the issues were never resolved between the brothers even until death.

The Owners of Puma and Adidas are Brothers

The Dassler brothers separated even before the company “Adi Dassler” registered. Rudolf Dassler established his own company Ruda. In 1949, the company “Adi Dassler” was registered in the name of Adidas and Ruda was rebranded as “Puma”. Rudolf’s company became the biggest competition for Adidas in Germany.

Profession of Adolf Dassler

Adolf Dassler was cobbler by profession but who knows that his small profession would make him the owner of biggest company. Adolf used to make his shoes in his mother’s laundry room.

Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik

After World War I, Rudolf joined his brother’s work in 1924, which led to the development of shoes factory. This factory later named as Gebruder Dassler Schuhfabrik. Jesse Owens wore spikes made by Rudolf Dassler in 1936 Summer Olympics.

The Factory Almost Destroyed after WWII

Probably, you may not that Dassler Brothers Factory was used for making anti-tank weapons during WWII. After the war, US forces were trying to destroy the factory. But somehow Aadolf’s wife made them believe that the place was solely for shoe manufacturing.

Adidas Supreme Sneakers

The company intended to name their most ideal sneakers on the name of French Tennis star, Robert Haillet. But the company ended up naming it as “Stan Smith” on the name of Stanley Smith.

Adidas Superstar

Just like “Stan Smith” sneakers, Adidas had no intention to make “Adidas Superstar” for skateboarders. Instead the company had made them for basketball. Luckily, the shoes became the most popular shoes in 90’s.

The Company Was About To Bankrupt

Yes, we can’t think of a company like Adidas has faced bankruptcy. Actually, the company took some poor strategic steps due to which the company was about to bankrupt in 90’s.

Iconic Three Strip’s Design

Obviously, one can easily tell the shoes brand by its logo. The World famous three strip design of shoes is for stability. But now has become an easily recognizable aspect of brand.

Company Got Its Name from an Acronym

The international sportswear company is often said to get its name from an acronym. “All Day I Dream about Sports”. Or “All Day I Dream about Soccer”. Well, it is wrong because the company got its name from the founder.

Slogan of Adidas

“Impossible is nothing” is not a new slogan of Adidas. As in the beginning Adidas only made sportswear. The slogan changed to “Adidas is All In” after the company started manufacturing apparels.

Adidas Park

There is a park in Boston where only sneakers from Adidas are allowed. If a person occasionally wear some other brand sneakers like Puma and Nike, his sneakers got snatched. So please do remember to wear Adidas sneakers otherwise you get hanged on the “Tree of Shame”.

Adidas Provided Team Kits To Bayern Munich

FC Bayern Munich is a sports club in Munich, Bavaria. International Companies supplies team kits to international sport clubs, Adidas is one of these companies.

Consumer Primacy

Adidas values its consumer very much. Because of this reason the company has built trust of many famous athletes and sports club. So the company believes in consumer primacy.

Adidas Products are sold in Many Countries

More than 200 countries have outlets selling Adidas products. The company is making huge revenue from the beginning. In 1994, the revenue was of $3 billion dollars. In only 3 years the profit increased to 40 percent.

Adidas Sponsored Big Events

The Summer Olympic in Beijing, China was held in 2008. The whole event was sponsored by Adidas. The company spent over 70 million Euros. The next year the revenue increased to 10 billion Euros.

Adidas Logo

Adolf designed the three stripes logo for his company. Though the logo has continued to change throughout the time but the signature three stripes from Adolf are still a part of logo. The current logo has three slanted stripes in a mountain shape. The logo represents the challenges an athlete have to face during his career.

Adidas Has Two Logos

Yes! But it suits to a brand like Adidas. A logo for sportswear and another for apparels. In 1972, the company broaden its business which gave rise the need of another logo. Three stripes logo was the first logo of Adidas. While the second one is the Trefoil Logo which is created for items like t-shirt, hoodies and pants. Oops, I forgot to mention that Trefoil logo was created in 1971.

Trefoil Logo was a Difficult Choice

Adi Dassler selected the trefoil logo from 100’s of logo ideas that were presented. So the selection was hard. The three leaf in the logo indicates the landmasses of Europe, Asia, America, and Africa.

Trefoil Logo Debut

The Adidas trefoil logo made its debut in Munich Olympic Games in 1972.

Hip Hop Brand

In 1970’s, the fashion brands were emerging so Adidas attached with hip hop fashion. Due to this demanding need the brand is also associated with hip hop designs. But Adidas also brought innovations in basketball World. If you are a sports fan you would be aware of Adidas Superstar. The shoes was best selling shoes in 90’s.

Adidas Win Case against Payless ShoeSource

Payless ShoeSource, a shoe brand from America, launched shoes with four strips on sneakers. Adidas considered it a trade mark infringement and filed a case against the company. Adidas won the case and was awarded $300 million by jury.

Parent Company of Other Brands

Adidas owns Taylor Made, Reebok and Rockport. In 1986, Rockport was sold to British Footwear Company, Reebok. Later both these companies were purchased by Adidas for $300 billion dollars.

Biggest Competition for Adidas

Off course, Nike is the biggest competition for Adidas. Nike signed a great eight year deal to sponsor kits for National Basketball Association for $1 billion. One of the wealthiest football star, David Beckham penciled a lifetime deal with Adidas. Do you know how much the endorsement deal worth? The agreement worth $160 million.

But still there is a fear that Nike will snatch the deal.

First Adidas Apparel

Adidas introduced its first apparel back in 1967, which was a track suit for Franz Beckenbauer (Famous German Footballer). Adidas apparels include a wide variety of items such as Jackets, T-shirts, Hoodies, Leggings and Pants. Moreover, bags, hats and sports equipment are some other products of Adidas. The largest seller of sports bra in Europe is Adidas.

Adidas Superstars Were Made In France

Well, Adidas is a German brand so all its iconic shoes must be made in Germany. But Adidas Superstar sneakers were actually made in France. As the design is concerned, the sneakers have a golden trefoil on the tongue of sneakers.

Horst Dassler

Horst Dassler created the brand “Arena”. He was the son of Adi Dassler. Being impressed by Mark Spitz performance. He contacted Mark to advertise the brand. Horst died of cancer in 1987.

Adidas Tubular Sneakers

The company took inspiration from car tires to make tubular sneakers. They try to imitate car tires design.

 Adidas Jeans Sneakers

Well, the word jeans may be confuse us but in reality there was no denim cloth used in the making of these sneakers. Adidas jeans are normal rubber sole sneakers.

Partnership between Matt Bonner and Adidas

When New Balance stopped sending products to Matt Bonner, he tweeted about it. Hence, Matt and Adidas collaborated.

Adidas Care about Athletes

As consumer primacy is Adidas goal. The company launched a line of “Adilette” shoes in 1972. The slides were specially introduced for soccer players. Because the brand claims that the shoes were made especially for locker rooms on demand by athletes.      

Micheal Jordan’s Deal

The famous basketball start, Micheal Jordan, was about to ink a deal with Adidas but he didn’t sign. Jordan wanted to wear Adidas low-cut shoes. But company’s executive claimed that Jordan can’t convey the exact image because he is too short. After this Nike signed a deal with Jordan.

The Stripes are For Stability

Many of us consider the world famous three stripes a design. Actually, they are for stability of shoes.

Woven Sneakers

Nike filed a case to stop Adidas from launching their woven sneakers. But the sneakers turned out to be a great success for Adidas as the decision of case was in favor of the company.

An Innovative Brand

Microchips was introduced in the design of sneakers for athletes. This chips is known as S3 Stride Sensor. The Adidas Micro-pacer connected to the chip show the total calories burned. The micropacer is similar to a wrist watch.

BMX Riders

Adidas wanted to make their shoes popular among the BMX riders so they gifted their signature sneakers to Dave Mirra and Ryan Nyquist.

Master Mind behind the Designs

The designer joined Adidas in 2008. Jeremy Scott has a full line of Adidas products bearing his name. Jeremy took Adidas designs to a new level. The high fashion end designer introduced Teddy Bear Shoes. He used new elements like floral designs, metallic leather, fur, and bright colors.  

Adidas Skateboarding

In 1998, Adidas decided to rock the skateboarding world. The company distributed the Adidas Skateboarding apparels and shoes to all the skateboarding retailers.